Trump meets with Macron in first international trip since reelection: ‘World is going a little crazy right now’
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(PARIS) — President-elect Donald Trump kicked off his first foreign trip since his reelection with a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace.
Ahead of the meeting, Macron welcomed Trump, saying, “It’s a great honor for the French people to welcome you five years later.”
Macron thanked Trump for his “solidarity” and “immediate action” during his first presidency: “You were at the time the president, the first time, and I remember the solidarity and your immediate action. Welcome back again. Thank you. We are very happy to have you here.”
Trump in return celebrated the “great success” the United States and France had together on “defense and offense” during his first term and said they will talk about how the world is “going a little crazy right now.”
“Thank you very much. Very great honor. And we had a great relationship. As everyone knows, we accomplished a lot together,” he said. “And the people of France are spectacular. I guess it’s one of our largest groups in the United States, French people, and we respect them and we love them. Very talented people, extremely energetic people, as you know very well, yeah, and it’s an honor to be here.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joined Macron and Trump at about 11:34 a.m. Eastern time. However, he did not offer remarks ahead of the meeting.
Trump is in France to partake in the reopening ceremonies for Notre Dame more than five years after a fire severely damaged the cathedral. First lady Jill Biden is also among the representatives from around the world attending the ceremonies.
The meeting comes at a time when Macron’s government is undergoing a political crisis after his prime minister, Michel Barnier, resigned after facing a no-confidence vote. Macron, who became president in 2017, has vowed he will serve until the end of his term in 2027 despite facing calls from some to resign.
“We had a good time together, and we had a lot of lot of success, really great success, working together on defense and offense too,” Trump said of the U.S.-French relationship in his first administration. “And it certainly seems like the world is going a little crazy right now, and we’ll be talking about that.”
Trump arrived at the Elysee Palace around 10:41 a.m. and met with Macron outside before walking into the building around 10:43 a.m. Eastern time. He was also set to meet with Prince William, the Prince of Wales, for the first time since 2019, but their meeting before the Notre Dame ceremony was canceled.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — As controversy continues to cloud some of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks, his team has an ominous warning for Republicans who don’t fall in line behind his nominees.
ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl reports that one senior Trump adviser said the message to lawmakers is, “If you are on the wrong side of the vote, you’re buying yourself a primary.”
“That is all,” the adviser told Karl. “And there’s a guy named Elon Musk who is going to finance it.”
“The president gets to decide his Cabinet. No one else,” the adviser added.
The threat comes as Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth (tapped for attorney general and defense secretary, respectively) make the rounds on Capitol Hill this week to shore up support. They’re being escorted by Vice President-elect JD Vance, the junior senator from Ohio.
Gaetz faces allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, which he’s long denied, that was the subject of a federal investigation and a House Ethics Committee probe. Hegseth has been accused of sexual assaulting a woman in 2017, an encounter Hegseth told police was consensual.
Trump is standing firm with the selections, which had also raised eyebrows for their relative lack of experience to lead the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense.
But for Gaetz especially, confirmation is no guarantee. Republicans will have a slim, three-seat majority in the Senate.
Already, two GOP senators — Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski — have signaled opposition to Gaetz, though they haven’t officially said how they would vote. Sen. Kevin Cramer told ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott last week that if the vote were to happen now, Gaetz wouldn’t pass muster.
Trump previously made a demand for Republican leadership to back so-called “recess appointments” to skirt the traditional confirmation process. That route would require lawmakers to adjourn and for senators to give up the “advice and consent” role they play in nominations, as laid out in the Constitution.
But his demand is being met with some resistance from some Senate Republicans
Sen. Thom Tillis, a senior Republican and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said recess appointments for Cabinet posts should be “absolutely off the table.”
“And quite honestly, any serious candidate for Cabinet-level position, I would really have to wonder if they would want it or be willing to accept it under a recess,” Tillis said. “These positions are too important. They carry too much weight internationally to take a short cut.”
Several senators have said they want the full “process” and vetting of candidates to play out.
“The Constitution gives us a role in personnel called advice and consent. My view is that’s exactly what will unfold here when these nominees are actually sent forward, and we’ll treat them like we’ve treated all others with the proper vetting,” said longtime Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who recently stepped down from the role.
Sen. Josh Hawley, who met with Gaetz on Wednesday, said on Wednesday his intention to vote for all nominees.
“I think for my colleagues who are — who have concerns about the attorney general nominee, my message would be, well, let’s have a hearing on this,” Hawley said. “You can ask whatever — if you’re a member of the committee, you can ask whatever question you want, give Gaetz the opportunity to answer questions, lay out his vision, answer concerns.”
(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump posted a flurry of announcements to his Truth Social account on Tuesday night, including the appointment of Kimberly Guilfoyle as the ambassador to Greece and Tom Barrack as the ambassador to Turkey.
Guilfoyle, a former fundraiser for Trump and a former host on Fox News, is currently in an established relationship with Donald Trump Jr.
In announcing her position, Trump wrote, “For many years, Kimberly has been a close friend and ally. Her extensive experience and leadership in law, media, and politics along with her sharp intellect make her supremely qualified to represent the United States, and safeguard its interests abroad.”
The post also stated, “Kimberly is perfectly suited to foster strong bilateral relations with Greece, advancing our interests on issues ranging from defense cooperation to trade and economic innovation.”
Tom Barrack is Trump’s longtime friend who chaired his first inaugural committee — and he was notably acquitted of federal charges accusing him of illegal foreign lobbying on behalf of the United Arab Emirates.
Barrack was charged during the first Trump administration and campaign, in 2021. During his trial, he was accused by federal prosecutors of acting as a foreign agent but failing to register between 2016 and 2018 while allegedly trying to “leverage his access” to Trump with his contacts in the UAE.
A jury found him not guilty on all charges — which also included conspiracy, obstruction and lying to the FBI — in November 2022.
Trump praised Barrack’s acquittal at the time, saying in a statement: “Great news for our Country, Freedom, and Democracy in that businessman Tom Barrack, who should have never been charged or tried, was just acquitted of all charges.”
Barrack’s testimony during the trial was at times critical of Trump. He said on the witness stand that his support for Trump politically was “disastrous” for him professionally, at one point mocking Trump’s understanding of the Middle East.
“This amazingly good businessman became the president of the United States who could not spell the Middle East,” Barrack said.
Asked about his criticism of Trump at the time of the acquittal, Barrack told ABC News: “I’m just done with politics.”
In announcing his ambassadorship to Turkey on Tuesday, Trump said that Barrack is “a well respected and experienced voice of reason.”
The president-elect also announced roles at the Federal Trade Commission. He named Andrew Ferguson as chairman and Mark Meador as commissioner.
“Andrew has a proven record of standing up to Big Tech censorship, and protecting Freedom of Speech in our Great Country. Sworn in as a Commissioner on April 2, 2024, he will be able to fight on behalf of the American People on Day One of my Administration,” Trump wrote in his announcement.
The post continued, “Andrew will be the most America First, and pro-innovation FTC Chair in our Country’s History.”
For Meador, Trump listed a series of degrees and accomplishments in the announcement post.
At the Office of Management and Budget, Trump announced Congressman Dan Bishop as deputy director and Ed Martin as the chief of staff.
For Bishop, he posted, “Dan has been a tireless fighter for our MAGA Movement in the House of Representatives on the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees. Dan will implement my cost-cutting and deregulatory agenda across all Agencies, and root out the Weaponized Deep State.”
“Ed is a winner who will help Make America Great Again!” he wrote for Martin.
Lastly, Trump announced that Jacob Helberg will serve as undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment at the State Department.
In his post on Truth Social, Trump said, “In this role Jacob will be a champion of our America First Foreign Policy. He will guide State Department policy on Economic statecraft, promoting America’s Economic security and growth, and American technological dominance abroad. Jacob is a successful technology executive, has the knowledge, expertise, and pragmatism to defend America’s Economic interests abroad, and always puts AMERICA FIRST!”
Helberg is a former Democrat who went from being a little-known tech adviser to a rising star in Trump’s circles, known largely as a China hawk and as a major proponent of the bill that may lead to banning TikTok in the U.S.
He’s a commissioner for the U.S.-China Economic Security Review Commission, and he helped shore support on Capitol Hill for the bill that would ban TikTok if it’s not sold from its Chinese parent company by Jan. 19, 2025.
After Biden signed the TikTok bill into law earlier this year, Helberg posted photos of himself with several powerful members of Congress, including Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, thanking them for being “truly outstanding people who can come together when our security is at stake.”
Helberg called TikTok a “Chinese weapon of war” in August, and he previously published a book titled, “The Wires of War.” The 2021 book is about tech-fueled wars shaping the world’s balance of power in the coming century, arguing that “without a firm partnership with the government, Silicon Valley is unable to protect democracy from the autocrats looking to sabotage it from Beijing to Moscow and Tehran.”
Helberg’s harsh criticism of TikTok could clash with Trump’s vow to “save” TikTok, even though Trump tried to ban the app during his first administration.
Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance “have laid out an aggressive agenda to face the twin convulsions of technological and geopolitical change, and ensure America wins the economic contests that define this century,” Helberg wrote on X after Trump announced his appointment on Tuesday.
“The State Department will play a critical role in acting on this vision,” his post continued. “I look forward to earning the support of the U.S. Senate and working with @MarcoRubio to implement President Trump’s agenda.”
In previous years, Helberg and his husband were “significant supporters” of Ron DeSantis and then reportedly shifted fundraising support to Nikki Haley in 2023.
By midway through the following year, however, Helberg had personally contributed $844,600 to the Trump 47 Committee, Inc. and another $1 million to the Make America Great Again, Inc. super PACs, according to filing data made available by the FEC.
Photo Credit: Prince Williams/WireImage/James Devaney/GC Images
(WASHINGTON) — The race for the White House remained essentially a dead heat on Friday — with 11 days to go until Election Day.
Kamala Harris was headed to Texas to highlight abortion access and Donald Trump was set to appear on Joe Rogan’s highly-popular podcast.
More than 31 million have voted as of Friday morning
As of Friday morning, more than 31 million Americans had voted early, according to the Election Lab at the University of Florida.
Of the total early votes numbering 31,402,309, in-person early votes accounted for 13,687,197 ballots and mail-in ballots numbered 17,715,831.
This means that more than 16 million people have voted since Monday.
-ABC News’ Emily Chang
Harris to hit Trump for not releasing medical records at Texas rally on abortion rights
Harris will go after Trump in her speech in Houston, Texas, on Friday night that will focus on reproductive rights.
“The Attorney General of Texas is suing the United States Government so that Texas prosecutors can get their hands on the private medical records of women who leave the state to get care,” Harris will say, according to released excerpts of her speech.
“So, see what is happening: Donald Trump won’t let anyone see his medical records. But these guys want to get their hands on yours? Simply put: They are out of their minds,” she will say.
The vice president will reiterate her campaign pledge to push Congress to pass a bill restoring Roe v. Wade if elected.
“We are fighting for an America where, no matter who you are, or where you live, you can make that decision based on what is right for you and your family,” Harris will say.
ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie
Harris rips Trump over his ‘garbage can’ comments
Speaking to reporters before her event later today in Houston, Harris said she wanted to address Trump’s comment that America has become a “garbage can” and “dumping ground” for migrants from around the world.
“You know, it’s just another example of how he really belittles our country,” Harris said. “This is someone who is a former president of the United States, who has a bully pulpit, and this is how he uses it, to tell the rest of the world that somehow the United States of America is trash.”
“And I think, again, the president of the United States should be someone who elevates discourse and talks about the best of who we are and invest in the best of who we are, not someone like Donald Trump, who is constantly demeaning and belittling who the American people are,” the vice president added.
Trump’s comments are the latest example of his anti-immigrant rhetoric.
-ABC News’ Will McDuffie
Walz says it’s time to ‘execute’ at fundraiser
In what could have been his final financial event of the campaign, Tim Walz, at a fundraiser in Pennsylvania, said it was now time to use all that money to focus on the ground game.
“Now it’s time to execute … Never in my lifetime, would I have believed that the choice would be so stark,” he said.
The Harris campaign and the Democratic National Committee entered the final three weeks of the election with a clear cash advantage over the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, latest FEC records show.
As of Oct. 16, the Harris campaign, the DNC and their joint fundraising committees reported having nearly $270 million in cash on hand compared to $202 million the Trump campaign, the RNC and their joint fundraising committees had in the bank, the new filings show.
The Trump campaign committee, in particular, had $36 million in the bank as of Oct. 16 compared to the Harris campaign committee having $119 million in cash on hand.
-ABC News’ Isabella Murray and Soorin Kim
Trump repeats threat to jail election officials
Trump on Friday reposted his earlier message promising, before any evidence of fraud, to prosecute and deliver long prison sentences for election workers and others who he deems to have cheated during November’s election.
“Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”
Election officials had called such a threat “dangerous” given the heightened threat environment.
“It makes me concerned that this will set other people off. I think the one thing that we’ve seen before is that words have consequences and meaning,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes told ABC News last month.
“And while we are concerned, we are also prepared. Elections officials across the country have been working with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to monitor and track threats, to make sure we’re keeping our voters safe and make sure we’re keeping our elections officials safe,” Fontes said.
Harris says she hasn’t voted yet but it’s on ‘priority list’
Harris, taking reporter questions on Friday, was asked if she’s cast her ballot yet.
Her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, voted with his wife and son in Minnesota earlier this week.
Harris said she hasn’t voted but “it’s on my priority list for these next few days.”
Trump to call into Virginia rally after voter purge program halted Trump is attempting to place doubt about voter rolls in Virginia after a judge ordered voters purged from election rolls as a result of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s directive to be reinstated.
A federal judge said on Friday Youngkin’s program violated the National Voting Rights Act of 1993.
“This is a totally unacceptable travesty, and Governor Youngkin is absolutely right to appeal this ILLEGAL ORDER, and the U.S. Supreme Court will hopefully fix it! Only U.S. Citizens should be allowed to vote. Keep fighting, Glenn – AND REPUBLICANS IN VIRGINIA, KEEP VOTING EARLY!” Trump posted on his social media platform.
Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump is set to rally with Youngkin on Saturday. Trump said he plans to call into the rally to highlight the issue.
“I will be calling in to Glenn’s Rally with Lara Trump tomorrow morning to talk about this crazy Ruling, and announce my final stop in Virginia before Election Day.”
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Pennsylvania county says it stopped thousands of voter registration fraud incidents
Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County Board of Elections said that approximately 2,500 suspected fraudulent voter registration applications were dropped off at the election office in two batches around the deadline to register.
The deadline to register in the swing state was Oct. 21.
The board said “concerns were raised” during the normal review process and law enforcement was alerted.
Notably, the board says in its statement that the fraud was “identified and contained” and lauded this incident as one that shows that the election “system is secure.”
“Our system worked,” the board declared. “We will continue to operate with the highest levels of veracity, integrity, and transparency so that Lancaster County voters can be confident in our election.”
-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin
The Washington Post won’t endorse a presidential candidate
The Washington Post announced Friday it will not issue an endorsement in this year’s election — a first for the legacy newspaper in more than three decades.
“The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election. We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” publisher William Lewis wrote in a note explaining the decision.
The Post follows the Los Angeles Times in not backing a candidate.
Both newspapers had endorsed President Joe Biden in 2020 against Trump.
McConnell, Johnson rebuke Harris for calling Trump ‘fascist’
In a rare joint statement, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell strongly condemned Harris calling Trump a “fascist” and comparing him to Adolf Hitler.
The two Republican leaders say Harris’ remarks have “only fanned the flames beneath a boiling cauldron of political animus. Her most recent and most reckless invocations of the darkest evil of the 20th century seem to dare it to boil over. The Vice President’s words more closely resemble those of President Trump’s second would-be assassin than her own earlier appeal to civility.”
McConnell and Johnson say they have been briefed on the “ongoing and persistent threats to former President Donald Trump.”
Harris quickly seized on John Kelly’s comments to The New York Times this week that he believed Trump fit the description of a fascist. Kelly served as Trump’s chief of staff and is a retired general.
Trump has claimed for months that Harris is a “fascist” or “communist” or “Marxist.”
-ABC News’ Lauren Peller
Virginia judge strikes down voter purge that impacted 1,600 people
A federal judge issued a partial ruling finding that Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order to conduct a daily voter purge process violated the National Voting Rights Act of 1993.
A total of 1,600 voters removed from the rolls since August must be added back within the next five days.
The judge said the process left no room for individualized inquiry, which violated the act’s requirement that “when in the 90-day provisional, it must be done on an individualized basis.”
-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson
Trump zeroes in on ‘blue wall’ states
Trump will embark on a rigorous schedule making his final pitch to voters. The former president is focusing on the “blue wall” states this weekend and early next week, specifically targeting Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
After stops in Michigan and Pennsylvania on Saturday, Trump will culminate his weekend campaigning with a rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, in which the former president has coined as a “celebration of the whole thing” with his nine years of campaigning coming to close.
-ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh, Lalee Ibssa and Soorin Kim
Americans accused of noncitizen voter fraud face doxxing
Eliud Bonilla, a Brooklyn-born NASA engineer born to Puerto Rican parents, was abruptly purged from the voter rolls as a “noncitizen.”
Bonilla later voted without issue, but the nuisance soon became a nightmare after a conservative watchdog group published his personal information online after obtaining a list of the state’s suspected noncitizen voters.
“I became worried because of safety,” he told ABC News, “because, unfortunately, we’ve seen too many examples in this country when one person wants to right a perceived wrong and goes through with an act of violence.”
Bonilla’s story highlights a real-world impact of aggressive efforts to purge state voter rolls of thousands of potential noncitizens who have illegally registered. Many of the names end up being newly naturalized citizens, victims of an inadvertent paperwork mistake or the result of a clerical error, experts say. Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections.
Read more about Bonilla’s story and a fact check of noncitizen voting claims here.
Half of Americans see Trump as fascist, Harris viewed as pandering: POLL
A new poll from ABC News and Ipsos found half of Americans (49%) see Trump as a fascist, or “a political extremist who seeks to act as a dictator, disregards individual rights and threatens or uses force against their opponents.”
A majority of voters (65%) also said Trump often says things that are not true.
But Harris also faces perception headwinds, though far fewer Americans (22%) said they viewed her as a fascist.
Fifty-seven percent of registered voters said Harris is making proposals “that just are intended to get people to vote for her,” not that she intends to carry out. Just more than half (52%) said the same about Trump.
Trump to appear on Joe Rogan podcast in play for young male voters
Former President Donald Trump sits down with podcast host Joe Rogan for the first time Friday, appearing on the highly popular “The Joe Rogan Experience,” as he reaches out to an audience of mostly young males as potential voters.
The podcast, which boasts approximately 15.7 million followers, a Spotify representative confirmed to ABC News, is greater than the population of any of the seven election battleground states.
